A new bill calls for $50 million in matching funds for travel advertising expenditures and for grants supporting a national promotional campaign in conjunction with the private sector.
The bill, HR 3140, includes $30 million in fiscal 2002 and $20 million in fiscal 2003 for advertising programs encouraging travel to and within the United States.
The funds would match advertising spending by public or private travel organizations. State tourism agencies alone allocated $650 million in their 1999-2000 budgets, according to the Travel industry association of America (TIA).
The bill has been met with skepticism by at least one group.
"It's unlikely that it will happen," said a spokesperson for the TIA. "There seems to be on Capitol Hill a [negative] perception about bailouts."
The TIA is more confident about a stipulation within the bill allowing a $500 tax credit ($1,000 in the case of joint returns) for personal travel expenditures.
It also endorses a call for a small business travel and tourism loan program within the bill. That program would provide low-interest loans to firms that serve the travel and tourism industries. These loans could be used for any purpose, including maintaining day-to-day operations or debt refinancing.
The TIA also supports a clause in the bill that would restore full deductibility for business entertainment expenses, tax credits for training, retaining and hiring travel and tourism industry workers and allowing the industry to carry losses from the period after the Sept. 11 attacks through the end of 2002 beyond the standard two-year limit.
The bill was introduced Oct. 16 by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). The bill has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, as well as the Ways and Means, Small Business and Education and the Workforce committees.
